Noosa To Host Cities Power Partnership Summit

Noosa Council has been chosen to host a national summit later this year for local government, industry and community leaders doing their bit towards Australia’s energy transformation.

The Cities Power Partnership is an initiative of the Climate Council. Its membership is currently comprised of 123 councils from across the country, representing almost 11 million Australians – around 43% of this country’s population. Councils that sign on to the CPP make five pledges relating to either renewable energy, efficiency, transport or working in other ways to tackle climate change.

The upcoming summit, Transforming Australia 2020, will be held 28-30 October 2020 at J Theatre Noosa in Noosa Heads and seeks to further develop regional climate and energy solutions. Topics to be covered include:

• Building communities that are bushfire resilient
• Taking communities to net-zero emissions
• Investing in large-scale renewables

“After the success of the last Cities Power Partnership summit, we’re excited to drawing local government powerhouses together once more in Noosa to accelerate Australia’s climate and energy transformation,” said CPP Director David Craven.

Those attending the event will also have opportunity to visit local projects, including  Sunshine Coast Solar Farm, which enabled summit partner Sunshine Coast Council to offset 100 per cent of its electricity consumption with renewable energy. At the time of writing, the facility had generated 71,175.7 MWh of electricity since it was commissioned, and has avoided 56,940 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions according to live generation data that can be viewed here.

Councils, Carbon And Mosquitos

Noosa Council has some pretty solid street cred when it comes to tackling climate change. It was the first council in Queensland to declare a climate emergency and has been keen to reap the emission and energy cost reduction benefits of solar energy. Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington says Council has installed more than a thousand solar panels to date. One of its recent installations is a 72.5-kilowatt system comprised of 250 flexible eArche solar panels.

“When it comes to coping with the impacts of climate change, we’re all in this together,” said Mayor Wellington. “And so it’s together that we must develop bold climate and energy solutions. As the Dalai Lama said, if you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

As part of its CPP pledges, Noosa Shire Council has made a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2026 – and judging by the zeal it’s tackling the challenge with, Council should achieve its goal.